"Pieces of the Island"-An English Translation

Moment in Which Women from the Rosa Parks Movement were Brutally Arrested Caught on Audio

Via the blog of Antunez- “I will not shut up, I will not leave”: Female dissidents from the Rosa Parks Movement for Civil Rights who had plans to march through the streets of Santa Clara today, February 1st, were brutally beaten and arrested by State Security agents during their peaceful protest against impunity.

Idania Yánez Contreras, member of the Rosa Parks Movement, was able to provide an audio, via telephone, of the moment she and other women were going out to protest in the street. Towards the middle of the audio, once can hear the women being violently arrested.

Below is the audio (in spanish) followed by a translated transcription:

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Moment of March for Freedom and Against Impunity in Santa Clara, and audio of Brutal Arrests

Voice of Idania Yanez Contreras, the president of the Central Opposition Coalition and member of the Rosa Parks Movement for Civil Rights. February 1st, 2012.

“Here we are in the headquarters of the Central Opposition Coalition, located in Prolongacion of Marta Abreu 93rd A e/B and C in the Virginia neighborhood, in the city of Santa Clara. This march takes place every 1st day of each month. Right now, we are surrounded by a large number of State Security officials and police agents. We dedicated the past march to demand the freedom of Ivonne Malleza Galano and her husband Ignacio Martinez, and we are dedicating this one to demand the freedom of Yazmin Conlledo Riveron and her husband Yusmani Rafael Alvarez Esmoris, who are both currently unjustly jailed since January 8th, and being accused of false charges. But we are also taking advantage of the occasion to celebrate the 99th birthday of the person who we have named our movement after- Rosa Parks.

We are carrying a blanket with the phrases “March for freedom and against impunity”, “Freedom for Yazmin Conlledo and Yusmari Alvarez, unjustly imprisoned”, “Rosa Parks Movement”, and “Long Live Human Rights”.

Right now we are walking out of the house, we know that we are not going to be able to walk very far, they are already there…they are looking at us and well, we are starting our march.

(Loud and disturbing screams of pain and of protest, voices of different women)

Take your hands off of my breasts, you murderer, take your hands off my breasts, murderer, human rights violator. Do not hit me, you murderer, stop hitting me. They are going to kill us!

Take your hands off of my breasts! Take your hands off you henchman! Do not touch my breasts! Stop, murderer!

(Voice of one of the agents speaking to another): She has a cell phone, there it is!

You murderer, get your hands off of my breasts!

The call is cut at this moment.

Minutes after the arrest, Barbara Moya, mother of Damaris Moya Portieles (one of the women arrested) and witness of the brutal aggresions against these women, said:

“The State Security officials and the National Revolutionary Police ran up to these women and pushed them. The women sat down on the floor as a sign of civic protest and each woman was attacked by 6 to 7 police officials, who picked them up from the floor and aggressively pushing them, that’s how the political police acts in this country. There were about 20 or 30 officials for these women from the Rosa Parks movement.

We were recording everything that they were doing to the women. State Security officials took out a bed sheet and were putting it in front of the camera to try and keep us from recording. We told them that the world was going to find out about all of this, because even if they put that sheet over the camera, we were able to record something”.